*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Rating: 4/10 (24 July 2005)

I saw "The Island" starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson and thought it was barely OK.
But I also saw ways it could have been a whole lot better.
What began with an interesting set up and an initial storyline seemingly fraught with both nuance and thought-provoking science fiction, gradually degenerated into a simplistic confusion of repetitive chase scenes, well-staged multiple car crashes, Hollywood gun play clichés and the demolition of various buildings.
It was actually entertaining and full of action, but it could have been so much more.
The basic premise of this movie from director Michael Bay was quite promising and for about half its length I was drawn in and eager for more.
I was reminded of such enjoyable older movies as the ambitiously futuristic "Logan's Run" (1976) starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, John Frankenheimer's imaginative, dramatic mystery/thriller "Seconds" (1966), which featured Rock Hudson in perhaps his very best performance, and "Coma" (1978), a chilling medical thriller directed by Michael Crichton from Robin Cook's novel, starring Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas.
These flicks were also about the secret recycling of body parts and the suspenseful development of that plot device alone was more than enough to keep them exciting and ethically entertaining without unleavened on screen mayhem worthy of "Die Hard," "The Terminator" or even the latest "Star Wars" episode.
There is a market and a need for all kinds of movies and this was a partially good one.
But when this film, at about the midpoint, increasingly took a route primarily featuring special effects rather than interaction between the main characters, I began to lose interest.
In "The Island," McGregor and Johannson play escaping clones, emotional and intellectual children on the lam in a strange and adult brave new world.
They run and they hide, they dodge bullets and they learn to survive, but, for my taste, too little cinematic notice is taken of their characters or their interactions after all the explosions start and the black helicopters fill the air.
Take away some of the redundant, fiery, special effects and give me better fireworks in the sack, when Ewan and Scarlett discover and explore their newfound sexuality.
Please.
There were a few well-done bits about learning new meanings of life and language, but let's have more of that and cut out a few scenes where they keep running down long tunnels.
I'll credit the clever and entertaining "Shaun of the Dead" for delivering much more from a one trick pony with a shopworn plot than this flick did.
Here, IMHO, two good and attractive actors with well-developed bodies, portraying interesting characters with rapidly developing minds, are largely wasted in the end, doing little more than playing predictable hide and seek with all the bad guys.
I thought this was an acceptable action movie, but rather poor use of Scarlett Johansson's smoking body and a potentially much better science fiction/dramatic storyline.
See it expecting nothing more and you won't be as disappointed as I was.